Aj's FTC Speech
Before I begin I want to say, I know many of you have a preconceived notion of my game and for that reason have no interest in voting me. Whilst I respect your opinions and know you can vote however you want, I would appreciate you at least considering me even if it’s only slight. Please be gentle. When the game began I found myself on a tribe that was admittedly very advantageous to me. Not only did I have five other people that I knew prior to the game beginning, but I also found, unlike other orgs I’ve ever played in, there was actually three other Australians on the tribe, meaning timezones weren’t actually going to be an issue for once. Needless to say, I had a very lucky tribe division for my game. Instantly Johnny wanted to form an alliance with the previous JPORG members, him, myself, Max, Tom, Chris, and (reluctantly at first) Jason. I went along with his idea but at the same time was developing a close relationship with Torrance from my tribe. Torrance and I kinda just got each other and clicked really well so we both wanted to work with each other a lot, however with the main alliance of JPORGs already forming strong I knew we’d need another outlet to work efficiently. This is when I decided to form the ‘Australians Plus Jason Alliance’, and got together with Max, Jason and I. Having built a connection with Torrance already I knew it was in both his and my own best interests to convince Max and Jason he was trustworthy, and so I did, and just like that we had our fourth. Now we won the first challenge thanks to Johnny, and in our first loss had the two inactives to target, being *Tom and Winston. Feeling I could potentially work with Winston later on if he ever came online for more than five minutes, I wanted to convince everyone to vote Tom, also cutting away one of the JPORG members in the process. As this was going on Johnny had also sent me and Max the clue to the hidden immunity idol which was a puzzle to solve to gain the idol, so I solved it for him and it came back as being solved already. I’d be lying if I said I knew who had it, and had no idea it was Jason, so I painted the target on Johnny. I told pretty much our whole tribe that he had, which I myself did believe to a degree, which probably caused more dissention than necessary, but it worked in further pushing forward the alliance of Jason, Max, Torrance and I. We made it to the swap and I, once again, was lucky in that I was on the dominant tribe in challenges and was able to keep allies even if I lost. Winston got ejected which was kinda shitty because that was one less Apolima, and more importantly to me, it put Max in danger. We then won the next challenge and Johnny and I made the choice to kidnap Max. This was a major fuck you to Chris clearly, but we were pretty sure the merge was happening soon and so it was what we had to do to keep a loyal ally. At the first merge vote my game honestly did crumble and I acknowledge that. Up until this point I had only attended one tribal which was to vote off an inactive, but I had done everything else to set a foundation for my game, and a major part of that went walking out the door in the Torrance vote. Admittedly it was my own fault as I tried to spearhead the Johnny blindside, convinced I had Aren and Eva on board with me, but this wasn’t the case, as the Namuas took out my closest ally. This was where I took my biggest risk in the game and (if I lose this jury vote) isolated the people I needed to win. I realised that I was going to the end with people that would absolutely wipe the floor with me in a jury vote, as I would undoubtedly have lost against the likes of Max, Johnny, Eva or Jason, and so I decided my best way to progress was to switch to the Namuas, and reel in Aren. After pulling off a similar tactic which worked in Bang-A-Rang (I had a reward that removed someone from voting at tribal and used it on myself to see who stood where in alliances) I decided to not vote at the tribal council. I had previously been alerted by Max that Eva was planning to flip, so in order to prove that Eva couldn’t be trusted, I knew this was my best move. I still had a safety excuse of just not remembering to vote in case people became angry. Aren and I had been talking about it for a little bit, and so, I let the timer run out on the vote, and surely enough, it was a tie. It was clear I hadn’t voted as I was singled out, proving to Namua that a flip had occured. From there, I just stuck with Namua and coasted through for a while, until I was turned on by them at final six. Thankfully Jordan and Max saved me (totally unable to claim this as my own move, I admit it was them) and I went through to final five. Up until this point I thought I had been succeeding at going unnoticed for the most part, so this really shook me up and I knew I had to win challenges from here. And to put it bluntly, I did. I literally saved myself with challenge wins every single round whether immunity or tie-breaker, for the whole rest of the game, whilst also playing up the fact that I was going to be ‘good to take to the end’ in case I failed. In hindsight this probably just made me become a goat and not by my own strategic merit, but it was a path to the end nevertheless. So, from start to finish, that’s my game. I am quite aware I played a game that most of you likely won’t take as a “good” game per se, but from my perspective I think I did what the game encompasses. It wouldn’t be a final tribal council speech without referring to the incredibly cliche motto of this game; I truly think I outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted better than Crystal did. I won the challenges I had to, and if the tiebreaker is included won the same amount as Crystal, however mine were all at a far higher stake than Crystal’s, as they were all late game when everyone is playing for the win, unlike the earlier merge when some people just stroll through submitting mediocre scores. I outlasted as it was ultimately me who had the say in who came here tonight. Crystal is here on my merit. And I outwitted, as I had a constant grasp on what was going on, and as previously stated, the one time it was about to fall out from under me at final six, I had a safety blanket to cushion the fall, picked myself back up and went on. I was able to create the alliances and vote in ways that always kept me going forward, and went throughout the game well in my opinion. Obviously I had some questionable ploys, (F10 vote, F9 lack of vote, etc.) however I think I stuck it out and played a good game. Tonight I’m going to be an open book. Ask me a question and I will answer it with honesty. If you think I played a shit game then, by all means, have that opinion. However I hope through reading this you understand my game, and see that with the hand I was dealt, I played it the best I could. Thank you, and I look forward to your questioning and/or tearing apart of me (preferably not the latter). Edit: Ok I'm putting this here because I wasn't quite sure where to address this and tribal is meant to be an open platform for discussion, so here goes. I know this will sound bitter, but if Crystal wins tonight then it's literally for nothing Crystal could possibly have done. Literally the only reason Crystal will win if he does (and I I don't want to sound like a dick but it's the truth) is because I won F5 immunity, beat Genki in a duel and won FIC. Had I not won all three of those, Crystal would not win. Aren summed this up perfectly in the end of his speech with the comparison to Survivor: China. Crystal is Amanda Kimmel, I am Todd (I guess with elements of Peih-Gee). You have Amanda/Crystal who has been like, ok strategically but always second fiddle to someone else which for Crystal was Genki, as well as winning a couple of challenges. Crystal has done literally nothing aside from that to actually further the game, and has been, in my opinion, utterly hopeless on Twila Tanner levels in this Final Tribal phase. I have been giving detailed and justified answers to show every single positive and negative of my game and have been addressing each of the questions so far in perfect honesty showing that I played a strong game, whilst Crystal has just fumbled around and downright insulted multiple people on the jury, and if you think I'm being melodramatic look no further than the thread from Jordan with his jury questions. Crystal has continued to (despite Jason mentioning being uncomfortable with it several times in the game) be weirdly flirty with Jason to zero success, and literally just stating Jason was just good to flirt with in that thread. Crystal also said that Max is arrogant and talks down to others, that Johnny is delusional and thinks he's in control and just isolates those he doesn't care about, that Aren was too comfortable and naive, and that Eva, who was definitely the biggest social threat in this game was just out here to make big moves. Does this honestly sound like someone that deserves to win and someone that actually understands what actually has happened in this game and the roles the jurors played in getting us here? No. No it does not. Literally the only thing Crystal holds over me is one more immunity win, but at a time where there weren't even serious stakes, so Crystal's self-professed Challenge Beast game as stated in his opening speech is entirely flawed and if that's the only argument he has then he has nothing. And before you say I'm being bitter. Yes, of course I am. Someone who has done really nothing to win is currently in line to win, and it frustrates me. I am actively trying to win whilst Crystal is just throwing his game away and dismissing those who he needs the jury votes of to win, and that's being rewarded. In all honesty if I lose this vote, then I actually owe a massive bloody apology to Max because I legitimately robbed him of a win to not even win myself and that's just shitty. All I ask is that you take into consideration who played the better game here. If I'm missing some magical thing Crystal did that you think deserves Crystal the win then be my guest and vote Crystal, but at least tell me what it was that he did because I fail to see a single redeeming factor in his game. Thank you for your time, or lack thereof.